On the corn front the market came rolling back in yesterday’s action after last week’s selloff. Funds came back in and bought 7,000 contracts of corn after lightening up on 5,000 contracts in the correction last week. Higher old crop trade versus new crop trade has traders thinking about even tighter supplies. Demand is still in play while traders will be watching events of La Nina unfold with forecasts predicting a warmer and drier U.S. spring. We will be sizing up acreage before you know it and the market seems poised to continue the uptrend. In the overnight electronic session, the March corn is currently trading at 520 ½ which is 9 cents higher. The trading range has been 521 to 508.
On the ethanol front the market is treading water as concerns of idle producing plants, corn to gasoline blends and summertime driving demand. There were no trades posted in the overnight electronic session. The April contract settled at 1.633 and is currently showing 1 bid at 1.590 and 2 offers at 1.749 with Open Interest at 45 contracts.
On the crude oil front the market traded higher on U.S. stimulus optimism and OPEC production cuts ahead of the February meeting. Their cartel is still wary of the possibility of flooding the market with product and get the double whammy we traded through last May with prices going into the negative with a production war and the coronavirus. That alone is showing that OPEC does not want a repeat performance of last spring with the debacle of not having an iron clad trade agreement for exports and production. In the overnight electronic session, the March crude oil is currently trading at 5301 which is 24 points higher. The trading range has been 5325 to 5229.
On the natural gas front the February contract expires tomorrow. We have also seen the pendulum switch gears again from bearish to bullish in weather news. LNG exports would be a big revenue winner and the industry is waiting for the new administration’s take on cashing in on that market. Hopefully, for the industry’s sake the government will give a green light on a growing export market of LNG. In the overnight electronic session, the March natural gas is currently trading at 2.629 which is .031 higher. The trading range has been 2.662 to 2.590